I was thinking this guy got them all, but as I just realized, here is something he did not mention: Amsterdam is flat. FLAT.
This is not a surprise, the whole country is flat anyway.
However, this makes such a big difference! In a city with several hills like Paris, cycling can be anything from lazy (going downhill) to utterly exhausting (going uphill).
* * *
There is a corollary to this, because going uphill not only requires more energy, it also makes cycling slower.
In Paris, almost all bus lanes are shared with bicycles. The only bus lanes forbidden to bicycles are the ones that go steeply uphill — because bicycles would be too slow and hold up bus traffic.
* * *
Source: currently living in Paris, I spent about 2 years in Amsterdam.
I live in Pittsburgh, one of the hilliest major(ish) cities in the world, and commute to work on a bicycle.
It's interesting, for sure. I usually get to work drenched in sweat, and drivers in America are still pretty ridiculously hostile. Pittsburgh has a lot of promise, though, and a bike-friendly mayor who's putting bike lanes everywhere (so much he's getting quite a bit of backlash).
What I'm saying is, even if the culture and landscape seem to be unforgiving, with the right infrastructure bikers find a way.
There is a tiny corner of it that has some smallish hills.
The Amstel Gold professional bike race manages to climb something like 4000 meters by hitting a lot of those small hills in quick succession - and using some multiple times.
This is not a surprise, the whole country is flat anyway.
However, this makes such a big difference! In a city with several hills like Paris, cycling can be anything from lazy (going downhill) to utterly exhausting (going uphill).
* * *
There is a corollary to this, because going uphill not only requires more energy, it also makes cycling slower.
In Paris, almost all bus lanes are shared with bicycles. The only bus lanes forbidden to bicycles are the ones that go steeply uphill — because bicycles would be too slow and hold up bus traffic.
* * *
Source: currently living in Paris, I spent about 2 years in Amsterdam.